A group of travellers in Springfield has left behind a trail of mess after vacating the site.

The Pollard's Green park, on Lawn Lane, is currently closed while the council carry out decontamination of the children's play area.

These are just some of the things the group left behind when they left yesterday (August 15).

1) Ambrosia

If you're going to leave a can of custard behind, at least it's a quality brand. This was found standing upright on the Pollards Green field yesterday evening.

2) A cryptic note

Any linguistic experts reading this, can you decipher what this note is saying? Is it a list of demands? A gripping first draft of a novel? Or merely a shopping list? I can't see the word 'Ambrosia' on it anywhere…

3) Clothes in a bucket

A load of dirty children's clothes were found wedged in this bucket, which begs the question why none of the other waste the group left could not have been wedged inside too. Waste of a perfectly good bucket if you ask me…

4) McDonald's in a pram

Essex Live has learnt that the group of travellers popped to the local McDonald's while they were in town, though as to what meals they ordered we are not quite sure.

We can confirm though that when we visited the park last night there was no baby left in the pram.

5) A (raw?!) pizza

Pepperoni pizza – fine. Taking one bite of a pepperoni pizza and leaving it on the ground – not fine. This may be one of the strangest gifts the group left behind for the council to clear. Not only did they only take one bite of the pizza rather than cut it into slices, it appears they did not even cook it. Maybe they were leaving in a hurry, or perhaps they had eaten too much Ambrosia.

6) Nivea and nappies

Now we come to the downright disgusting things. Our reporter found a shampoo bottle covered in human faeces next to a pile of baby nappies on her way home from work last night. At least they arranged it in a neat little pile…

7) Human poo

The city council has confirmed that there was human poo at the scene. The Tulip pub is only down the road why not use their toilets? The smell was reportedly so bad that one passer-by said: "I've never seen or smelt anything like it."

8) Broken glass

And now we come to the downright dangerous things. Shards of broken glass were found next to the children's play area of the park.

9) Street Lamp

An item which looks curiously like a street lamp. We have no idea why the travellers decided to leave this behind when it looks in perfectly good working order.

10) Shoes

The travellers really have been careless here – not only has someone misplaced their child's pram, nappies, and clothes, there is now a child walking around with one bare foot somewhere.

11) Duvets

In an attempt to conceal their rubbish, the group threw one of their duvets over piles of black bin bags.

The council began the clean-up at 7am today – here's hoping the playground will be open again soon.